Rob and Louise are unpacking in new places, living with locals, having new adventures and learning new things that may or may not change their future lives…

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Do we have what it takes to be farmers?...

We’re
sorry our blog has been abandoned for over six months. It’s mainly because we’re
rubbish, but also because we’ve been very, very busy.

As
we mentioned in November, most of the campsites in France had closed by the end
of October and we had spent much more money that we planned to on our cycling
trip. Basically, we needed somewhere free and warm to stay over winter. Thank
you workaways!

We
arranged to stay at two different farms, a 50 hectare Porc Noir farm in The
Gers from November to December and a smaller 5 hectare farm, with
sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats, in the Haute Pyrenees from
December to January.

One
of our dreams for the future is to live somewhere in the countryside where we
can try to be as self sufficient as possible, by growing our own veg and farming
some animals. This was our chance to find out if we have what it takes to be
farmers…

Feeding sheep was easy enough

Louise used the hose to fill all the water troughs

While Rob preferred soaking Louise with it

We
did have some concerns… Although Louise was brought up in the country and spent
her childhood climbing on hay bails and running around with sheep, goats and
horses, she fled to the city as soon as she was old enough, developed a fear of
chickens and is terrified of rats and mice.

But
we needn’t have worried, within a few days of our first French farm experience
Louise was grabbing dead birds, ripping out their feathers and pulling out
their insides at every opportunity.

Don’t
worry, Louise’s fear of chickens didn’t turn her crazy, plucking and gutting
poultry was a job that we learned a lot about while we were at both farms.

Louise
is much braver around mice and rats too. Although she did bring a cat to bed
every night, just in case, and wouldn’t go into the barn without these little
rat hunters.

Rob
added to his driving portfolio.

and Louise enjoyed getting a lift to piggy breakfast time

It’s easy enough going forwards, even with mountains of pig food

But reversing takes a lot of concentration

Of course Rob perfected it, even on a muddy slope with a trailer full of piggies

We
loved the pigs, especially the teenagers as we called them.

They
were getting pretty strong by the time we left and we had to develop a tag team
system of feeding them so we didn’t get knocked over. Louise would attract
their attention, by pretending to feed them at one side of the field, while Rob
made a run for the other feeding trough - it usually worked.

Not sure how Rob will get to the trough

They're on to us, run!

Moving
them wasn’t quite so easy. We thought we were pretty good at running, but pigs
are faster than they look and they ran circles around us on more than one
occasion. We
were very excited when some piglets were born at the farm, super cute.

The piglets keep warm under the heat lamp

Although
we got quite attached to the pigs, we always knew that the reason they were on
the farm was of course to be sold and eaten.

We
were a bit nervous about butchering, thinking that we might be squeamish, but surprisingly
we ended up really enjoying it. We helped the butcher by cutting, cleaning and
packing different cuts of pork and we learned all about jambon, cured meat that is
covered with a specific measurement of salt and pepper and left to hang in a
cool room for a year, then sold for lots of euros.

We all love a sausage or twenty

And
of course we enjoyed eating the meat. Unfortunately for us, most of it got sold at a local market, so we only got the leftovers. The flavor was
amazing and it felt so nice to know where our food had come from, a lovely farm
where animals live a happy life eating organic food.

French
markets are wonderful and we love that so many French people still go to there
to buy their food.

Apparently
the French spend around 80% of their wages on food, while in the UK the average
is closer to 20%. People in France seem to prefer to buy high quality food and like to
support the local economy, it’s rare to find imported food even in the
supermarkets. And don’t even ask for wine that isn’t French…

We helped out at the market in Mirande

Living with English families meant that we weren't speaking much French, so helping at the market was a good opportunity to practice our French. Then a night at the
loto (bingo) got us up to speed with our French numbers. We couldn't believe how many people of all ages went to loto, we were lucky to get seats together.

It
was exciting to be getting closer to the Pyrenees. And
even in December, it was warm enough to sit outside looking at the beautiful views.

Du pain, du vin, du Boursin

Stunning view from the house, you can just see the Pyrenees

We
managed to explore more of France on our days off.

We met D'Artagnan in Auch

Getting closer to the mountains...

Fresh mistletoe just in time for Christmas, lucky Louise...

The
second farm we worked at was even closer to the Pyrenees, so we finally got to
go and play in the mountains. We spent one day snowboarding at Perisud and another day
walking and playing in the snow.

Shame we forgot the sledge...

Working
at the Pork Noir farm gave us lots of experience that we used and adapted when
we moved on.

It
wasn’t just animals we learnt about. We spend a lot of time with some super
cute and slightly crazy kids on both farms. We had a lot of fun running around,
climbing trees and playing on trampolines.

We
did some more butchering at the second farm, this time it was with sheep and we
got even more involved. We assisted with the dispatch of two sheep, used a
butchering saw – it’s really hard sawing bone - and learnt some new knots.

This
time the meat wasn’t getting sold, so we could try out some new recipes. We
tried to use as much of the sheep as possible.

We made black pudding with caramelised apple

Amazing kidneys with lentils

We also made some not quite as tasty lung soup... We enjoyed a very tasty leg of lamb and it felt exciting to be eating food we
had helped dispatch and butcher, especially when we added veggies from the
garden.

We
think we might just have what it takes to be farmers after all… And are really
looking forward to having our own place, where we can put all the skills we’ve
learnt to the test, in the not too distant future.

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